Daily President: Mr. Obama’s calender is packed today with the National Prayer Breakfast, yet another question and answer session, two fund-raising appearances and two rounds of Oval Office meetings with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Harry Reid, Senator Richard Durbin and Representative Steny Hoyer are at the White House in the morning.

Taking Your Questions: In the last two weeks, unemployed workers in Ohio, YouTube users and even House Republicans have all gotten their chance to quiz the president, all the while the administration has turned the relationship between the mainstream media and the White House on its head, writes The Times’s Peter Baker. As he entertains yet another round of querying tonight — this time from his online grass-roots network — he has not given a news conference in seven months. And the White House noted on Wednesday that the president will not conduct regular “questiontime” sessions, despite the popularity of last week’s exchanges with Republican House members.

Double the Dough: Mr. Obama will speak at two Democratic National Committee fund-raisers tonight, one at the Capitol Hilton at 5:45 and then at the National Museum of Women in the Arts at 8.

Health Care: As Mr. Obama promised greater transparency in the formation of the health care legislation, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, told Congress Wednesday that she could not guarantee greater openness in negotiations, The Times’s Robert Pear reports.

The Wall Street Journal notes that government programs in 2011 will account for more than half of all health-care spending as the weak economy sends more people into Medicaid and slows growth of private insurance

Mr. Brown Goes to Washington: Senator-elect Scott Brown is picking up and heading down to Washington today to be sworn in after what The Boston Globe terms an “abrupt change of course” in what was otherwise a relaxed transition of power. He’ll be here just in time for the snowstorm that’s expected to dump 10 to 20 inches on the Capitol this weekend.

Tight in Illinois: Two days after some of the closest primary contests in Illinois history, Gov. Pat Quinn is likely to emerge as the Democrat’s nominee when Dan Hynes announces the fate of his campaign today, The Chicago Tribune reports. On the Republican side, however, a recount over as few as 400 votes will keep the race between State Senators Bill Brady and Kirk Dillard up in the air.

Meanwhile, the narrow victory of Alexi Giannoulias, the treasurer of Illinois and Mr. Obama’s basketball-playing friend, in the Democratic primary race for Mr. Obama’s old Senate seat is too close for comfort. Republicans are taking full advantage of it, running advertisements linking Mr. Giannoulias and Rod R. Blagojevich, the state’s indicted former governor.

Justice 9 Years later: The Central Intelligence Agency said Wednesday that 16 counternarcotics agents were responsible and would be disciplined for downing a plane carrying Americans over Peru when they mistook it for a drug smuggling aircraft in 2001, ABC News reports. The agency was accused of lying to Congress and covering up role its in the accident.

Supreme Court Debates: The Supreme Court’s recent campaign finance decision has prompted a number of prominent Republicans, including Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi; Jeb Bush, former governor of Florida; and Ed Gillespie, a former chairman of the Republican Party, to form a think tank — or “think and do tank” as one member, former Senator Norm Coleman, likes to call it. They hope it will be a conservative antidote to the liberal Center for American Progress set up by former Clinton administration officials.

The decision has also generated a bit of buzz around Washington as the Heritage Foundation and other such groups will hold discussions about its consequences. And, in a speech at a law school in Florida, Justice Clarence Thomas defended the decision vigorously.

National Prayer Breakfast: Mr. Obama, Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and an assembly of other prominent Washington figures will attend the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton this morning. The 50-year-old tradition typically goes unnoticed, but this year a government watchdog group is questioning the secrecy of the religious organization that runs the breakfast and has called upon government officials, including Mr. Obama, who will be speaking at the event, not to attend. Tim Tebow, the football player whose anti-abortion ad for the Super Bowl has attracted controversy, is also there.

Panda Farewell: Breaking up is hard to do, especially if it’s with a giant panda. Today, Washingtonians bid a wrenching farewell to Tai Shan, the giant panda who has lived at the Washington National Zoo for four years, from birth to maturity, on loan from China. He is scheduled to leave the zoo this morning at 9 a.m. for an 11:30 flight.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…